Catherine Leatherbarrow, vice chair of the governors and a member of the school's parents, teachers and friends association, said the 60th anniversary celebrations were combined yesterday with the summer fair under glorious sunshine.

She said most of the school's 200 pupils and most members of staff dressed in 50s clothing to stage a performance in the playground of dances to a medley of music from the hit musical Grease - to the surprise of parents who had no idea of what was being secretly planned.

"We had been practising for the past week," she said.

Some of the parents who turned up were former pupils of Burdyke Infants School, although the school had not succeeded in finding anyone who attended the school in the first year after it opened.

She said the fair, which raised money for school funds, included a 1950s vintage car, teachers in the stocks and a demonstration of eagles, owls and falcons.